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bhv,
First, if you're alluding to spoilers, don't allude to spoilers. Put in
the SPOILER SPACE and then be as open or as vague as you want to be.
I'm unspoiled and, if I had any interest in what's going to happen, I'd
probably be a little ticked at the coy hints.
Second, much as I'd like to believe that this is all some complex plot,
right now I wouldn't credit Joss with the skill to guide his belt
through the loops on his pants, much less finely-detailed subterfuge.
May I remind you that in each of Seasons 3-6, ME has admitted that they
were basically making up the ending as they went along? They didn't
know what the "Ascension" they'd been talking about would entail as late
as "Earshot", according to Jane Espenson. David Fury had to come up
with all the details of Adam's plan, etc, by himself in "Primeval".
They hadn't figured out who Glory was or what she wanted, according to
Marti Noxon, which is why we ended up with the massive exposition dump
that is "Spiral", and even after that, Joss had to pull stuff like "Olaf
the troll God" (wtf?) and "the monks made her out of me" (WTF?) out of
his butt so that he could have a "logical" basis for what "The Gift" was
about, Buffy committing suicide.
And then there's last year, where Giles comes up with a clever plan to
have Xander save the world--and *doesn't tell Xander*. If Xander had
decided not to run after Willow and instead get Buffy out of that hole
(since she's his friend, and in danger, and might actually be useful,
being **The Slayer** and all, you know...), Willow would have
crispy-fried the planet. And I won't get into the rest of "Grave",
which looks like Fury wrote it on the back of a cocktail napkin in 10
minutes, while drunk.
No, I'm pretty sure this isn't all part of some super-complex plot.
"Babylon 5" is cancelled, and Joss was never as into this sort of thing,
anyway.
Third, even if I'm entirely wrong about what's coming, that doesn't
excuse what's been. The show has an obligation to keep me interested if
they want me to keep watching. Making me sit through 18 episodes of
"Spike the Noble Rapist and Mass Murderer and the Dumb Bitch Who Should
Just Be Glad He Likes Her" isn't it, especially where the episodes
themselves, horrible characterizations and complete ignoring of anyone
who isn't named Buffy or Spike aside, have just plain sucked.
I don't care if Joss has something brilliant left. If he's really that
good, then he should have shown it before now.
Dan
PS--not only are we unlikely to get anything more for B/W than a
friendship moment (you know, the stuff we used to get a half-dozen times
an episode), even if we were to get some subtext, it's gonna be B/F or
W/F, you know that. They didn't bring Eliza back just to have Faith go
get the donuts, I'd bet.
Hardly worth sitting through the scene where Buffy breaks down and
admits she loves Spike, she's always loved Spike, and he's too good for
her, to my mind. (No, I'm unspoiled, but you know that's coming. The
only question is whether they'll have Boreanaz do a crossover so that
Buffy can reject Angel for the one, true, love of her life.)
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